*The other Angle* THE SELF, ATTITUDE, AND THE ILLUSION OF “AFRICAN TIME”

BY TAIWO OMONIYI OTITOLAYE

I have always read and heard the phrase “African Time.”

I have always wondered: Who invented “African Time”?

And more importantly: Does it have any relevance to the reality of our existence, or are we simply deluding ourselves?

Africa has witnessed civilizations, empires, and disciplines that stand among the greatest in human history. From Kemet in Ancient Egypt with its precise astronomical calendars¹, to the Abyssinian Empire of Ethiopia that governed through village square meetings and elders’ councils, from Ile-Ife with its bronze art and governance, to Great Zimbabwe with its stone cities, from Timbuktu with its universities and libraries, to the kingdoms of Benin with their guild systems and order.

Our continent did not stumble into greatness. It was built on covenant, discipline, and a sacred respect for time.

So I have concluded: “African Time” does not exist.

1. THE ILLUSION EXPOSED BY REALITY

I watched a video drama recently. A wedding was fixed for 1:00pm.
Many of the guests decided to arrive an hour or two later. Why?

Because, according to them, “the wedding will not start until an hour later. That’s African Time.”

But the bride and groom decided differently.
They started at exactly 1:00pm.

Those who came late missed the wedding.

Afterwards, the couple asked questions that should wake every sleeping conscience:

If your flight is fixed for 2:00pm, would you arrive at 3:00pm expecting the plane to wait for you because of “African Time”?

If you have a job interview fixed for 9:00am, would you walk in at 10:30am and still expect to be hired?

If you have surgery scheduled for 7:00am, would you tell the surgeon to wait because you are on “African Time”?

Of course not.

Because deep down, we know the world does not operate on excuses.
The world operates on covenant. The moment we agree on a time, we have made a promise.⁷

2. WHAT OUR ANCESTORS KNEW: AFRICA, THE TEACHER OF THE WORLD

The degeneration we see today is not African. It is the product of a degraded attitude and centuries of cultural hypnosis.

Let us go back.

In Kemet, Ancient Egypt, priests tracked the stars with precision that still baffles scientists today.

They built pyramids aligned to Orion. They divided the day into 24 hours and the year into 365 days. They created calendars that governed farming, festivals, and governance. So precise was Kemet that great philosophers and holy men traveled there to learn.

Pythagoras spent 22 years in Egypt studying mathematics, philosophy and governance. Plato studied for 13 years, and Aristotle also drew from Egyptian knowledge.

Did they travel thousands of miles to learn from a “late” people?

In the Abyssinian Empire of Ethiopia, one of the oldest continuous civilizations, time and community life were regulated by the village square, the elders’ council, and seasonal calendars tied to agriculture and governance. Kings, farmers, and traders all moved by that rhythm. Was that “African Time”?

In Ile-Ife and Oyo, our Yoruba ancestors had no wristwatches. Yet the palace had order. Guilds had order. Markets had order.

“Afere mo ju”— they would set out at dawn.

They read the sun’s position. They listened for the cock crow. They heard the town crier and the market bell.

When the elders said “meet at first light,” everyone was there. Because your word was your bond.

That was DIGNITY. That was RESISTANCE.
That was the African culture.

The Yoruba called it OMOLUABI: the person of character, integrity, and honor.

The Bantu people called it UBUNTU: I am because we are. And “we” cannot move forward if some of “us” arrive 2 hours late¹⁴.
Across West Africa, the JAMAS and griots and elders lived by codes that demanded punctuality, because the community depended on it.

There was a proverb: “A ki i fi idi kuro ni ile, ka to fi ori bori ile” — We do not abandon the foundation and expect the roof to stand.

Time was part of that foundation.

3. HOW THE LIE WAS BORN

So where did “African Time” come from?

It did not come from our palaces.
It did not come from our farms.
It did not come from our universities in Timbuktu where students arrived before the professor.

It came from a deliberate narrative .

During colonization, African systems were dismantled. Our calendars were replaced. Our town criers were silenced. Our market bells were ignored. Our children were taught that everything African was “backward”.

Then, when Africans, trying to survive a new and foreign system, began to struggle with the imposed structures of 9-to-5 jobs and colonial bureaucracy, the colonizer pointed and said: “See? African Time.”

And sadly, many of us believed it.
We internalized it.
We began to use it as an excuse, and in doing so, we surrendered OMOLUABI for carelessness.

Western imperialism and cultural dehumanization have worked hard to erase our memory of discipline.

They told us we were “late,” “undisciplined,” “unorganized.”
And too many of us capitulated to that foreign religion of mediocrity and cultural imperialism.

But a lie repeated does not become truth.

4. THE HARD TRUTH: IT’S NOT AFRICAN TIME. IT’S YOUR TIME.

It is not “African Time.”
It is your time.
It is your attitude.
It is your choice to honor or dishonor your own dignity.

Your attitude determines your altitude.

You cannot build an empire while arriving late to lay the first brick.
You cannot demand respect from the world while disrespecting the time you yourself set.

Think of it: The same African who will never miss a flight, will miss a community meeting.
The same African who will be early for a visa appointment at the embassy, will be late for his brother’s burial.

That is not culture. That is selective attitude. That is illusion.

The only “African Time” that ever existed was the sacred time it took to prepare with dignity.
The time the blacksmith took to forge the tool properly.
The time the weaver took to make the cloth with excellence.
The time the council took to deliberate before giving judgment.
That was not lateness. That was excellence.

5. BREAKING THE MAYA: COMING OUT OF THE ILLUSION

The Hindu concept of Maya means illusion seeing what is not real as real.

“African Time” is Maya.
It is a camouflaged lie that keeps us small.

Africa is not the root of lateness.
Africa is the root of modern civilization.

We gave the world mathematics, medicine, architecture, governance, and spirituality.

Kemet taught the world how to measure time.

Ethiopia taught the world how to preserve governance through council.

Timbuktu taught the world how to preserve knowledge.

So why have we accepted a label that contradicts our own history?

It is time to come out.
Time to unlearn.
Time to remember who we were before the hypnosis.

6. THE CALL: RESTORING THE COVENANT WITH TIME

From today, let the covenant with time be restored.

To the Elders: Teach it again. Tell the stories of how you kept covenant. How you walked miles to meet a promise at dawn.

To the Youth: Live it again. Be the generation that arrives early. That starts on time. That ends on time. That becomes known for OMOLUABI in a world of excuses.

To Institutions and the System: Reward it again. Start meetings when you said you would. Dismiss latecomers from opportunities, just like that wedding couple did. Let consequences teach what lectures cannot.

Because when we respect time, we respect ourselves.
When we respect ourselves, our families respect us.
When families respect themselves, communities rise.
And when communities rise, nations rise.

The flight will not wait.
The interview will not wait.
The opportunity will not wait.
And destiny will not wait.

CONCLUSION

There is no African Time.
There is only the time you promised.
There is only the dignity you choose to keep.
There is only the altitude your attitude will take you.

Let us lay down the illusion.

Let us pick up OMOLUABI.

Let us pick up UBUNTU.

Let us pick up the discipline of Kemet, the endurance of Abyssinia, the order of Ife, the scholarship of Timbuktu.

The world is watching.
And more importantly, our ancestors are watching.

The time is now!